US Mobile Market on the Rise

iFone predicts big things...

Global wireless entertainment publisher, iFone, has recently stated that it believes North America will soon become the largest and most sophisticated market for mobile gaming, with considerable growth in popularity to be seen within the next two years.

"A number of factors are converging which will allow the North American market to overtake other regions in terms of market development within a short period of time," says Morgan O'Rahilly, CEO of iFone. "The potential market for US cell phone users with a significant disposable income is very substantial. Added to which, there is also a strong casual gaming culture with gamers already used to playing against each other online and across a diversity of gaming platforms. As the penetration of game-enabled devices continues to increase, more and more consumers will be playing casual wireless games."

It is estimated that 35 to 45 million game-enabled wireless devices are currently being used in the US, and analyst are expecting the number to triple later in the year.

"In terms of adoption of mobile entertainment services, the US market is in its infancy compared with Western Europe and Asia," added Dr. Windsor Holden, Senior Analyst at Juniper Research. "However, we're now seeing significantly higher growth curves in the US, perhaps partly because service providers have honed their products in these other markets and thus American consumers are being hit at the outset with a much more extensive content portfolio, at a time when handsets are that much more sophisticated and - in terms of the multimedia experience - user-friendly."

iFone's success with wireless gaming in Europe has started to carry over in the US as well, with titles like Monopoly gaining tremendous popularity among casual and avid gamers alike. The already vast number of US wireless subscribers is going to soon draw the attention of many other global video game publishers, as the mobile gaming market quickly becomes one of the fastest growing markets in years.